Suzanne M. Michalek, Ph.D.

Dr. Michalek received her Bachelor’s degree in biology from Illinois State University in 1967. She went on to earn her Master’s, also in biology at Illinois State University, in 1968. She then came to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she received her Ph.D. in Microbiology in 1976. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the Laboratory of Microbiology and Immunology, NIDR, at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Michalek joined the UAB faculty in 1979 and is currently Professor in the Department of Microbiology (School of Medicine) and the Department of Oral Biology (School of Dentistry), Director of the Research Center in Oral Biology, and a Senior Scientist in many UAB Centers. Dr. Michalek’s research focuses on the induction and regulation of IgA responses, the development of oral vaccines for mucosal pathogens, T cell regulatory networks in the mucosal immune system and mucosal inflammation, and the role of co-stimulatory pathways, Toll-like receptors and cell signaling pathways in mucosal pathogen-host interactions.